Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Chat

Join the discussion and chat with other Mumsnetters about everyday life, relationships and parenting.

Original poster

How were the Sunday evenings of your youth?

175 replies

Mrsemcgregor · 02/08/2020 17:08

Mine consisted of a bath and hair wash, nightie and slippers on in front of the gas fire, a “Sunday tea” which consisted of chopped apple, cheese and bread and butter triangles. Usually eaten while watching a BBC family drama such as The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe, or The Borrowers. Possibly a bit of Antiques Roadshow (which I found a bit boring).

In my teen years I would be upstairs trying to record my favourite songs from the Pepsi Max top 40 with Dr Fox.

What about you?

OP posts:
speakout · 02/08/2020 21:35

Painfully dull.
A weekly bath.
Very little on TV.
No weekly roast, would be boiled potatoes and corned beef or similar.
No books in the house.
Mostly sitting in the garden or in my bedroom.

Sloth66 · 02/08/2020 21:36

The house steamed up from cooking. Then salmon sandwiches and maybe angel delight.
The dreary theme tune Sing Something Simple..... I used to loathe Sunday evenings as the next day meant school for another week.

dayswithaY · 02/08/2020 21:40

I hated Sundays so much. They lasted forever, everything was shut, plus I lived in a village and the buses didn't run so if you went outside you could literally hear a pin drop. I wanted to run into the street and scream. My Dad always went to the pub and I remember him asleep in the chair with a newspaper on his face for most of the day.

The theme tune to That's Life would probably give me a panic attack if I heard it now, that's how much I dreaded school.

AnneElliott · 02/08/2020 21:44

Sundays for part of the year we're gang show rehearsals. The rest of the year it was a long boring day as nothing was open and there wasn't anything to do.

Original poster
Mrsemcgregor · 02/08/2020 21:47

I’m sorry to all those that have bad memories SadFlowers

OP posts:
vanillandhoney · 02/08/2020 21:51

Board games.
Top of the Pops.
Bath and hair wash ready for school.
Normally reading a book in bed.

Sunday afternoons were baking bread with my dad - normally focaccia. And then while the dough was rising we'd go for a walk or a bike ride somewhere, come home and finish the bras and bake it.

I loved knocking back the dough and then eating the bread still warm from the oven.

Caoilainn · 02/08/2020 21:52

I have the same memories as lots of you. Cheese on toast, or a cheese toastie done in the frying pan for tea as we had a roast for lunch. Also having the constant sound of motor racing on the tv during the day.

Does anyone else remember a show called monkey/monkee. Not 100% sure it was Sunday night but was a definite part of childhood weekends.

It was a very badly dubbed tv show that was I think based on martial arts. It was awful

Taping the charts and trying to stop before the DJ talked was also a thing!

TheCatsBlanket · 02/08/2020 21:53

watching The Adventures Of Black Beauty - the theme tune takes me right back when I listen to it on Youtube

Bishoprick · 02/08/2020 21:54

@vanillandhoney Top of the Pops was Thursdays!

LinManWellWellWell · 02/08/2020 22:05

This thread makes me want to cry! So much nostalgia!

Lollypop4 · 02/08/2020 22:08

[quote chocolatepudandchocolatesauce]@Lollypop4 was it Due South?[/quote]
Yes !!! Loved ,Due south!!! Even as a kid I thought the mounty was very handsome haha

CaptainCallisto · 02/08/2020 22:17

For me as a child it was toasties for tea, bath and a hair wash, and then the BBC family drama and Heartbeat/Time Team snuggled in my dressing gown, squashed into the armchair with my sister.

I have DVD's of lots of the BBC family dramas (and some of the CBBC ones) and now the DC's are old enough we put an episode on after their bath on a Sunday evening. I love it! So far we've watched all four of the BBC Narnia ones, Moondial, Earthfasts, and Return of the Psammead. We're about halfway through the first series of The Borrowers at the moment. It's one of my favourite bits of the week!

sonjadog · 02/08/2020 22:20

I used to do my homework lying on the floor of my bedroom, listening to the Top 40 on the radio. I would have two fingers poised over the play and record buttons on my cassette players, so as to press them as soon as a song I liked came on. Then we would have a Sunday roast on trays in front of the television and watch the Sunday night drama and those holiday shows that used to show people going to several different destinations each week.

ghostmous3 · 02/08/2020 22:25

My sunday evenings were similar
I used to help down our local stables all day aged around 10 or 11then get picked up at 4 ish, home for a sunday roast, bath with hair wash then watch something like lion the witch and wardrobe or the borrowers in my pjs. Used to watch antiques road show too.

Later on being a teenager I'd be in my room recording the top 40 and then after 7 out with my mates till 9pm
Happy days

x2boys · 02/08/2020 22:25

I don't think Monkey or possibly Monkey magic was on sundays@Caoillanin I think it might have been on Thursdays or Fridays ,strange Japanese or Chinese programme with Monkey and Pigsy having super natural powers?

LunaNorth · 02/08/2020 22:29

Tea was cold beef sandwiches, a packet of crisps, and mum’s stewed rhubarb in jelly or tinned fruit and ice cream.

We’d watch Catchphrase, Bullseye, Last of the Summer Wine, Antiques Roadshow, Heartbeat, That’s Life.

I’d be tussling cluelessly with my maths homework.

Sometimes we’d have a game of cards or Trivial Pursuit.

Regulus · 02/08/2020 22:32

Exactly the same, except sitting with my back against the radiator as the house was so cold.

Thesuzle · 02/08/2020 22:32

Cramming a times table for the Monday morning test.
What a way to ruin kids weekends with that hanging over their heads

TinkersTailor · 02/08/2020 22:40

When I think of Sunday nights my mind goes straight to autumn/winter.

Dark, cold evenings. My mum would have the heaters blaring so the house was toasty.
A roast dinner, bath and hair wash, pyjamas (which she put on the radiator for me) and then sitting in front of the TV watching coronation street (I think) with toast and cocoa while mum did the ironing. Waiting for dad to come home from work to tuck me into bed.
If I close my eyes I can smell the ironing water now.

Those were the good times before she succumbed to her addiction.

Miss my mum Sad

LegoMaus · 02/08/2020 22:45

Bath and something quick like sandwiches for tea while we watched the telly. I remember “Surprise Surprise” used to be on tv and when I heard the theme tune I’d feel a sinking sensation in my tummy and a wave of nausea. It still makes me feel sick, and so does anything that sounds like the electric alarm clock we used to have.

OllyBJolly · 02/08/2020 22:50

Tom Brown's Top Forty from 4pm -6pm. dancing in front of my mirror with hairbrush or tennis racquet

Bath, hair wash (weekly event. Same water for 4 kids. Oldest had joined navy when youngest was born)

Cheese on toast for tea

Bed at 8pm. (that was bed time until I was a mid teenager. DF worked shifts and I think DM needed to get us all to bed to get some peace and quiet!) Shared rooms so guess it was easier.

OllyBJolly · 02/08/2020 22:52

Should add. Aged 14 moved to remote island. Had to go to boarding school as no high school in travelling distance. Caught the bus at 6.30pm and at school for 7.45pm. Supper and bed at 10pm.

Loved the freedom of boarding school!

GinWithASplashOfTonic · 02/08/2020 22:59

When I was child - my dad will have gone back to work for the week after a high tea and then mum and I would settle down with antiques roadshow and monarch of the glen

When I was a teenager- my dad would be home so we would invite grandparents over for a Sunday roast early evening. Then fall
Asleep in front of antiques roadshow, and Downton Abbey

CherryCocktails · 02/08/2020 23:03

I recall for a while the Darling Buds of May being on tv along with Lovejoy, Howard's way and You rang me lord... all good programs, especially darling buds!

Spinachfinger · 02/08/2020 23:07

I love this thread OP.

Sundays for me were generally wake up and watch endless amounts of crap on the tv downstairs whilst my parents had a lie in. In this time me and my brother would raid all the crisps and chocolate in our house and watch rubbish tv like Little House on the Prairie or The Waltons (with our duvet covers wrapped round of course, cos the house was freezing). Then my parents would get up and my dad would make an amazing cooked breakfast before reading the sunday papers.

My mum would spend sunday afternoon ironing (there was always tons of ironing in our house). And she would listen to Red Rose Gold radio station which played a lot of country music on sundays. I would watch corrie/eastenders omnibus or just prat around.

Later on they would cook a really good roast dinner which we would have at about 5/6 pm.

I would do my reading or spelling ready for monday at school. Then it would be bath with my hair washed and in to my nightie. Then all the classics on tv to watch. Heartbeat, Bullseye, Songs of Praise and Antiques Roadshow. Then bed.

As I got older the tv shows changed. I used to love watching The Chart Show on Sundays or The Simpsons. And the programs at night were sometimes Where The Heart Is (I think), Ballykissangel and I used to love watching Sharpe with my parents. Also tape recording the charts off the radio onto cassettes became a big thing for me. I also remember the sunday night dread.

I still get the dread now.